Fall Conference runs November 2-4, at the Hilton Charlotte University Place. Registration is now open.

Dannye Romine Powell is the author of four poetry collections, the most recent from Press 53, Nobody Calls Me Darling Anymore. She has twice won the Brockman Campbell Award, as well as the Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition in 2011. She has won fellowships in poetry from the NEA, the NC Arts Council, and Yaddo. She has served as book editor and local news columnist of the Charlotte Observer and is the author of Parting the Curtains: Interviews with Southern Writers.

"Congratulations! You've inherited a large fortune, on the condition that you use it to start your own publishing house. What kind of books are you going to publish?"

Here's what Dannye said:

"I've inherited a large fortune. Hooray! I'm opening a bookstore.

"Here's what I want to carry.

"Lots of cookbooks, which allow me to carry dozens of poetry collections, especially those of NC writers.

"Lots of mysteries, particularly John Grisham, which will allow me to carry such literary treats as those of Ron Rash, Travis Mulhouser, Kim Church, David Payne, Kathryn Schwille, David Joy, Raymond Barfield, Angela Davis-Gardner.

"For every Jan Karon and Pat Conroy, I could include a shelf of NC history books.

"I would keep a pot of coffee brewing. I would include couches and wing chairs, and I would cater to neighborhood cats."

During the panel "Does Place Still Matter?", participants will discuss whether or not, in our global, hyperconnected world—a world with satellites and Google Street View—a sense of place still matters. What does “place” mean when people are more mobile than ever before? Four Charlotte writers—Julie Funderburk, Patrice Gopo, Dannye Romine Powell, and Kim Wright—each of whom took a different path to the Queen City, bring their perspectives to the question.

Fall Conference attracts hundreds of writers from around the country and provides a weekend full of activities that include lunch and dinner banquets with readings, keynotes, tracks in several genres, open mic sessions, and the opportunity for one-on-one manuscript critiques with editors or agents. Master Classes will be led by Judy Goldman (Creative Nonfiction), Maureen Ryan Griffin (Poetry), Randall Kenan (Fiction), who, as a 2018 inductee into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, also will give the Keynote Address.

The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to all writers, in all genres, at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.